Life sentence awaits man convicted in fatal drive-by shooting of woman in Minneapolis

Jurors convicted a co-defendant of first-degree murder for his role in the fatal drive-by shooting of a woman in north Minneapolis nearly 16 months ago.

Tremaine Michael Bucholz, 27 of Minneapolis, was found guilty Tuesday in Hennepin County District Court in connection with the death on Aug. 9, 2023, of 34-year-old Stevi Rae Palacio, of Minneapolis, near Thomas and Oak Park avenues N.

Bucholz, who was found guilty of first-degree murder during a drive-by shooting and second-degree intentional murder, is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 30, when he will receive the mandatory life in prison with the opportunity for parole in 30 years.

Prosecutors said they believe Bucholz was a shooter in Palacio’s death, but they declined to say more at this stage.

His alleged accomplice, Derrick Lamond Johnson Sr., 52, of Minneapolis, is jailed in lieu of $2 million bail and is scheduled to go on trial on Jan. 13.

According to the charges:

Reported gunfire shortly after midnight sent officers to the scene, where they found Palacio on the sidewalk shot in the back. She was taken by emergency responders to HCMC, where she was soon pronounced dead.

Police obtained video from a resident’s doorbell camera, and it captured a cargo van stopping alongside Palacio before a gunshot from someone in the front passenger seat wounded her. Palacio started running, and the same person fired seven more shots, with one hitting her in the back.

Police found the van a day later parked in the underground garage of an apartment complex in the 2200 block of Golden Valley Road where Johnson lives. Its passenger-side window was shattered from the gunfire coming from inside the vehicle.

Investigators collected Bucholz and Johnson’s fingerprints from the van.

Police arrested Bucholz on Sept. 5, 2022. He admitted being in the van but did not confess to shooting Palacio. The charges also failed to indicate a motive for the killing.